Distinguished guests, dear colleagues and friends,
It is my pleasure to welcome you to the 2021 WHO Mental Health Forum.
Thank you all for joining us, and I would especially like to thank our Global Goodwill Ambassador for Mental Health, Cynthia Germanotta, the president and co-founder of the Born This Way Foundation, for her continued support and advocacy.
We convene this forum every year to create better understanding, opportunities and systems to respond to the massive unmet need for mental health support and services around the world.
The COVID-19 pandemic has made an already challenging situation worse, exacerbating both mental health needs and the gaps in mental health services.
Of course, even before the pandemic, access to quality, affordable mental health care was far too limited, particularly in humanitarian emergencies and conflict settings.
Now, major disruptions to essential health services around the world have made accessing mental health care even more difficult.
In response, the World Health Assembly has urged Member States to develop and strengthen comprehensive mental health services and psychosocial support as part of universal health coverage.
In particular, the mandate is to focus on improving understanding and acceptance of mental health conditions, issues for vulnerable populations, and the use of innovative technologies to increase access to care.
The WHA also endorsed an updated set of indicators and implementation options to guide action at the national level, as set out in the 2030 WHO Mental Health Action Plan.
Throughout the pandemic, WHO has worked to respond to the multiple needs and demands faced by countries in addressing the mental health consequences of COVID-19.
WHO is honoured to co-chair the UN Inter-Agency Standing Committee’s Working Group on mental health and psychosocial support group.
The Group has developed and disseminated a series of technical and informational materials that are being used in across the globe to tackle COVID-19’s mental health impacts.
I would like to offer my sincere appreciation for the outstanding work of this multi-agency and multi-partner group.
With the support and collaboration of the Dutch government and other partners, WHO launched for the first time an interagency rapid deployment mechanism for mental health and psychosocial support coordinators.
To date, experts have been deployed to rapid 32 countries.
I would also like to mention the WHO Special Initiative for Mental Health, which supports countries in advancing mental health policies, advocacy and human rights, as well as scaling up quality interventions and services as part of universal health coverage.
The project is currently at work in Bangladesh, Ghana, Jordan, Nepal, Paraguay, Philippines, Ukraine and Zimbabwe.
We offer our thanks to Norway, Switzerland and the United States for their dedicated support.
Let me leave you with three areas of focus:
First, let’s recognize the COVID-19 pandemic as not only a challenge, but an opportunity. We must try to reframe and advance the global mental health agenda through the integration of mental health into pandemic-response and recovery plans.
Second, let’s learn the lessons of this pandemic, and work to build resilient health systems and services that meet the mental as well as physical health needs of the population.
Third, as we plan for the long-term, let’s join together to support countries in their efforts to integrate mental health support into schools, community and primary health care, to address the determinants of mental health; and to make sure than nobody is left behind.
Because ultimately, there is no health without mental health.
I thank you.